This is a hard questions to answer. It’s one that all of us struggle with from time to time. Or maybe a little more often than that. We live in an age were there are so many different styles of worship music ranging from classic hymns to ultra contemporary worship in which you feel like you are at a concert. Each of these styles affects us differently. Some of us start working on to do lists in our heads when we hear hymns. There are those who cringe when we feel the kick drum pounding into our chest. For some, it’s a particular writer of worship songs that engages us more than others. For a different group, a certain song writer pushes them away. For some of us we just don’t enter the sanctuary until worship is over.
Pastor Eric challenged us this week to ask ourselves the question “Which of us is right?”.
In the past year I have learned a lot about how different people view worship very differently. I have also learned how to approach worship when a particular song or set of songs doesn’t seem to engage me. I’ll give you an example. A favored song in our church is “God of this City”. This is a wonderful song that engages a large portion of our congregation. This song does absolutely nothing for me spiritually. I have tried in every way possible to find and engage with God while singing this song. Nothing. I actually began to find myself totally disengaging with the entire worship service due to my dislike of this song. About a month ago though, it hit me. I discovered how to engage in worshiping God through this song. It was very simple. PRAYER!!! When the song started playing on that particular sunday, God put it on my heart for me to pray. I found such joy in that time of worship. It was at this moment that I discovered how to continually engage in worship though I may dislike a song, hymn, or anything else. It was so simple. Prayer. So my challenge to anyone who may read this, if you find yourself being distracted from worship because of a song or instrument or even a bad mix. Stop and engage with God in prayer.
SK
So for those who are reading this and don’t know me, or haven’t heard about the happenings at South Park Church, you might need a little context for this series of blogs. Let me give it to you. For the past year at SPC we have been up and down the road of church conflict. Some of it we have handled well, some of it not so much. In the end we decided to ask Peacemaker Ministries to come down, give our church an evaluation and to train us in Biblical conflict resolution. What a blessing having them here over the past couple of days has been. I have learned more in 2 days regarding conflict resolution than I ever thought I would. I’m so excited that I have to share it with you. So here we go:
“The first step in evaluating how to handle a conflict is to ask yourself this question: How can I please God in this situation?” These are the words Paul Cornwell from Peacemaker Ministries shared with us Saturday morning. I was totally taken aback. I had to stop and think about the conflicts I had experienced lately and figure out if I had asked myself this question. I couldn’t remember if I had at all. In fact I am pretty sure I had not. At least not intentionally. But it is easily the most important step in the process because it sets the tone for how the rest of your conflict will be handled. Now I am the type of person that will honestly just try to start handling the conflict to get it done and over with. But this is most often not the most God honoring solution. In fact, it probably tends to exasperate the problem if I am completely honest with myself. So my way of handling conflict was more often contrary to glorifying God.
So how do I glorify God in a conflict? Well Paul had a great answer for us. There are three things you need to ask yourself to discover if you are glorifying God in the midst of conflict:
- Am I Trusting Him?
- Am I letting go and giving this conflict to God and allowing Him to lead me and give me strength to handle this conflict as He desires?
- Am I Obeying Him?
- Am I studying scripture and using the tools He has given me to use in resolving this conflict?
- Am I Imitating Him?
- Am I following the example Christ left for us? Am I being humble, slow to anger and soft in my speech?
The one that hits me the most is the last one. Am I truly imitating Christ in my approach to being a peacemaker? Something Paul said that i won’t forget is that: “Peace has everything to do with representing Christ in the world”
Lord, allow me to be a peacemaker. As I engage in conflict resolution, help me to pause and make sure that I am glorifying your name, that I am truly representing You.
SK
